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#Food Guide

What Does Eggplant Taste Like? Find Out Everything You Need to Know

Updated: March 11, 2020

By Nichlas Brandon

Today, I thought I’d dive into the notorious eggplant, otherwise known as “aubergine.”

To me, eggplants have always been a little bit of a mysterious produce item.

Video Overview

What Is Eggplant?

As I mentioned, eggplant is a seeded berry fruit grown on vines and it belongs to the nightshade family. This puts it in the same category as other plant foods like potatoes, chili peppers, tomatoes, and bell peppers.

Whether it had its start in India or China, common consensus holds that eggplant originated in Asia over 4000 years ago and it’s even said that, back then, it was shaped and colored like an egg.

While Thomas Jefferson introduced eggplant to the United States in the early 1800’s, it wasn’t until a century later in the 1900’s, that it became widely used in cooking thanks to Italian and Chinese immigrants.

Today, you and I can easily find eggplant in most parts of the world as it’s become very popular in Middle-Eastern, Indian, Chinese and Greek cuisines, and it comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors.

Appearance

As noted previously, there are many varieties of eggplant, and each one can look very different from its relative cousins, coming in all manners of shapes and sizes. Color will also vary between the different eggplants, ranging from yellow-white and lavender, all the way to orange.

The two eggplant varieties we’re likely to be most familiar with, are the Italian and American (also known as “globe”) eggplants, the former being smaller.

American eggplants are normally shaped like pears or teardrops with a deep, glossy purple color and a green, leafy stem. Their flesh is cream colored.

Taste and Texture

So, let’s talk about what eggplant tastes like for a moment.

With rare exception, the taste is very similar regardless of which variety of eggplant you get.

And the closest thing you can compare its taste to, is zucchini, which means you can expect a very mild and somewhat bland flavor, but you can easily pair it with more flavorful ingredients.

While eggplants are now being cultivated with the intention of making them much less bitter than they normally would be, there’s still a good chance you’ll end up with a bitter one.

But this also depends on the eggplant’s “gender” (for lack of better terminology, since fruits don’t have genders), as the female varieties have more bitter seeds and water than their male counterparts.

One thing you can do, which I’ll address later, is to draw the bitter water out of its flesh using salt, which effectively removes the bitterness.

Although not as effective once salted, the eggplant acts like a sponge when mixed with oils or liquids and juices from other foods. So its flesh easily absorbs flavor from the ingredients you cook it together with.

What Is Eggplant Used For?

While the usual way to use eggplant is for stuffing or sautéeing, it’s quite a versatile fruit which you can prepare or use as part of:

baked dishes

steamed dishes

grilled meals

stews

soups

dips and spreads

casseroles

And thanks to a naturally mellow and bland flavor, you’ll have lots of room to flex some creative foodie muscle!

What Are the Health Benefits of Eggplant?

If you’re looking to boost nutrient intake from your diet, eggplant is a wonderful food packed with important vitamins, minerals, fiber, and especially antioxidants.

Its nutritional content will support your well-being through a number of great health benefits and it has in fact been used in traditional medicine to improve a variety of problems like asthma and bronchitis.

Let’s have a look at some health benefits.

Excellent for Your Bones

Calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous and vitamin K2 are some of the key nutrients which help keep your bones strong, protecting you from osteoporosis and bone fragility. Eggplant just happens to be a good source of all these nutrients, which makes it ideal for your bone health.

Supports Good Heart and Cardiovascular Health

Anthocyanin is a polyphenol antioxidant found in various plant foods, which has been shown to be effective in protecting heart health, and eggplant has a high content of this antioxidant in its skin. The benefits to heart health go even further thanks to eggplant’s appreciable content of potassium, vitamins C and B6. And it doesn’t even matter if you eat it raw or cooked.

Eggplant is rich in water and high on appetite-suppressing fiber content. It’s also really light on calories, which, like I mentioned with rhubarb, makes it another ideal food to include in your diet if you’re trying to control calorie intake to lose weight. To help even more with achieving satiety, you can pair eggplant with avocado.

Helps Combat Anemia

Several important nutrients play a role in helping your body produce blood cells, including the minerals iron and copper, as well as folate (vitamin B9). Anemia is commonly associated with a deficiency in one or more of these nutrients, so making eggplant a regular part of your diet can help you increase your intake as it’s a good source of these nutrients.

Supports Healthy Pregnancy

If there’s one particular nutrient that receives considerable attention when it comes to a woman’s pregnancy, it’s hands down folate. This nutrient is critical for normal baby development, which reduces chances of birth defects. Consuming eggplant regularly is a good way to boost your intake of folate.

Availability and How to Store Eggplant

Typically, you’ll be able to buy eggplant year-round, but of course, you’ll find eggplant with the best flavor and at the best price when it’s in season from July through October.

How to Choose a Good Eggplant

When you’re looking for the best eggplant to buy, here are a few tips you can follow:

First, pick it up and feel its weight. It must feel heavy for its size. If it feels “too light,” it’s a sign it might be spoiling on the inside.

The skin should be even, firm, and shiny without any discoloration or bruising.

When checking for ripeness, use a finger to press against the eggplant’s skin, creating an indentation. If the skin bounces back, perfect. If the indentation stays, you should wait a few days before eating the eggplant.

How to Store Your Eggplant

If you were thinking about putting your eggplant in the refrigerator, think twice. It turns out eggplants are sensitive to temperatures below 50°F (10°C) and should instead be stored in a cool location away from direct sunlight.

So, while it can easily last for days in the refrigerator wrapped in a dry plastic bag, you’ll make it last longer if you store it at room temperature without a bag.

How to Prepare and Cook Eggplant

Hopefully, by now, you’re excited to give eggplant a go!

Let’s dive into how you can prepare eggplant, as well as some of the delicious meals and treats you can make with it.

First off, eggplant is among the clean 15 on the Environmental Working Group’s annual list of cleanest versus most sprayed produce items.

So, while you don’t have to panic about purchasing organic eggplant, I still recommend you do, as it gives you less reason to peel off the nutritious and antioxidant-rich skin.

An optional yet popular way to make eggplant ready for use in many recipes is to salt it, as this draws out the moisture and bitterness from its flesh, making it more palatable and improves the texture.

Here What You Do:

Rinse off your eggplant

Cut off both ends

Cut eggplant into quarter to half-inch slices

Lay out the slices on a rack, baking pan or cookie sheet and cover each slice with salt (both coarse and fine salts will do the trick)

Allow about 15-20 minutes for the salt to draw out the moisture

Thoroughly dab each slice with kitchen towel to remove the drawn-out water and excess salt

Your eggplant is now ready to use for a variety of recipes. Of course, if your recipe calls for eggplant halves, then you would skip this salting part.

Eggplant Tomato Stew

Thinking about a delicious and savory stew? Eggplant lends itself quite well for this purpose and you can make a nice dish for yourself using some basic ingredients like tomato, onion, garlic, parsley and olive oil.

Here’s a great recipe (fun to watch, too!):

Eggplant and Zucchini Soup

During colder seasons, there’s nothing like a nutritious, warming and flavorful soup to treat your taste buds. So, how about an eggplant and zucchini soup with ingredients like tomato, parsley, garlic, and onion?

Baba Ganoush

Ever heard of baba ganoush? Don’t worry if not, I hadn’t either until recently. In essence, it’s a Middle Eastern dip made with eggplant and tahini. As they say, if you like hummus, chances are you’ll love baba ganoush!

Reader Interactions

Comments

I am a 74 year old female and planning to embark on a totally plant-based vegan diet. First of all, am I too old to make this drastic change? Secondly, the recipe for Eggplant Tomato Stew sounds delicious, but it mentions that it includes oil. I didn’t think oil was allowed on a plant-based diet. Thanks in advance for answering my questions.

This approach is echoed by most of the popular plant-based nutrition doctors (Caldwell Esselstyn, Joel Fuhrman, Michael Greger, Michael Klaper, et al).

However, these professionals are also fairly occupied attempting to help people suffering from severe health complications, or weight challenges, where a no-oil, low-fat approach may be a critical step.

A universal omission of oils from the diet for all people, including relatively much healthier individuals, may not be necessary or possibly even a smart recommendation to make.

But when you do use oils, the key is to make smart choices. Here are three things to bear in mind:

1- Avoid Heating Oil

Whichever oil you choose, try to avoid using it for cooking purposes. If you must use an oil for cooking, choose an oil with a high smoke point (such as avocado oil, 520°F; coconut oil, 350°F; macadamia nut oil, 390-410°F; red palm oil, 300-450°F).

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